BUAFL As it Stands: Championship Playoff Bracket

Our as it stands playoff bracket is back! This week we are in the divisional round of the playoffs with some huge games! Check out lastweeks results to see how the teams got here. And make sure you follow us onFacebook to get the latest updates first! 

North

Hallam Warriors #3 @ Newcastle Raiders #2

This first divisional matchup of the weekend saw the Hallam Warriors head north to Newcastle to take on the Raiders.

The Warriors were the first team to register a score in the game as star running back Danny Pyle continued his good form for the season by receiving the first handoff of the game and taking it the house for a touchdown. This would turn out to be the only score of the first quarter as both teams defences dominated in miserable weather up north.

In the second quarter the game finally game to life as  Aden Flannagan, forced and recovered a fumble giving the ball back to the Hallam offence. A few plays later James Musonda converted the turnover into points with his first rushing touchdown of the game. 

The Raiders offence now finding themselves down by sixteen started to show up and drove the distance of the field and punched the ball in to bring them within nine points. Despite the Newcastle score, Hallam still found time for one late drive which ended with a Chris Webber scrambling for a TD of his own to once again give the Warriors a double digit score. Score at the half – 22-7.

Once again it was the Hallam defence that created the first big play of the second half as Anthony Marsden caused the Raiders QB to fumble, which was the recovered by Matthew Marsden who scooped and scored for another Warriors TD. Unimpressed by their lack of offence, the Raiders defence started to bring their team into the game with a score of their own as they intercepted a tipped Webber pass and returned it for a touchdown. 

Despite being down by two scores the Raiders continued to give 100% in the final quarter and managed to shut down the high powered Hallam offence, but unfortunately all hopes of a comeback were extinguished as a Flannagan pick 6 wrapped up the game for the Warriors. Final score 36-15.

The Warriors advanced to the Championship semi finals for the second consecutive year.

Newcastle "Texas Tech of the North" Raiders

Weekly Top 5: Top 5 Football Purchases

When I was a student, January meant a few things. Module results and retakes, raiding the parent’s cupboards and fridges for food before moving back to uni and most importantly... the next instalment of my student loan to spend on new gear for the year.

This week’s top 5 focuses on the things to spend your student loan on instead of module books (disclaimer – If you do actually waste your money and are unable to get the books required, Dbl Coverage will not be held responsible if you fail).

As usual we start with a few things that didn’t make the cut.

Cleats – With most players preferring to use football/rugby boots, cleats are a luxury instead of a necessity. With the choice over a variety of cleats and some specific to certain positions, there’s a variety of cleats to waste your money on for 2012 including Nikes latest Vapor Talon Elite.

Pointless Accessories – Bicep bands, neck collars, eye black, hand warmers, etc are all items that aren’t required, but everyone still loves to buy them. Therefore with money in the bank it’s now time to buy more accessories to the collection.

Nothing says awesome like three bicep bands on each arm, eye black and a cowboy collar!

BUAFL Breakdown: The TVC

Southampton Stags

The Stags seem to have finally overcome the Solent split and are returning to their regular role as national contenders. Graham Thorpe has the offence firing, and the Stags have been scoring for fun with 166 points on the season so far. It would have been a lot more if ARU hadn’t awarded them a 1-0 win.

The offence had to bail them out in the opener against BNU, putting up 52 points in a wild shootout and their run defence was exposed, conceded 48 points to the Buccaneers, who didn’t attempt a single pass. HC Gareth Thomas has done a nice job turning the defence around since then, with convincing wins over Reading and Brunel, where they made plays on both sides of the ball. A strong second half comeback against local rivals Solent saw the Stags hit the break at 5-0 and top of the TVC. 

With Surrey still on the schedule the Stags are all but guaranteed postseason football, but this team will be looking at the playoffs and not the plate. While Imperial should test them, the Stags should have too much offence for them. Southampton look set to travel to Portsmouth unbeaten with the TVC title on the line. Unfortunately for them OBU’s easy schedule will mean they probably need to go undefeated to make the playoffs as OBU look likely to run the table, leaving them at 7-1 with far less points conceded (and with no head to head tie-breaker). While they will have the offensive fire power to cause Portsmouth problems, they will have serious problems stopping the power run game.

BUAFL As It Stands: Challenge Cup Playoff

Following on from the Championship Playoff Wildcard bracket we take a look at the Challenge Cup playoffs if they were to start today. Take a look at our opening article to see how we got to the fixtures we are looking at today.

North

Lincoln Colonials @ Glasgow Tigers

Lincoln come into this game as underdogs to a Glasgow team that will feel hard done by to end up outside of the Championship playoffs and Glasgow would very quickly show why they were favourites quickly scoring two TD’s in the first quarter.

Lincoln responded in the second when deep in his own half QB Simon Wilkinson floated a pass to Wide Receiver Tom Bray who broke a tackle and ran the ball the length of the field. This however was the lone bright spot for Lincoln as they struggled to put anything together for the rest of the game as Glasgow dominated on defence and put up two more touchdowns as the game wound down to run out convincing winners at 28-7 and will play Hull Sharks in the quarter finals.

Chris Peel leads the Bradford Offence

Northumbria Mustangs @ Bradford Bears

The second of our Northern Wildcard games sees a clash between Northern and Border rivals as Northumbria travel down to take on Bradford.

The first quarter of the game showed that both teams were nervous of the occasion as misfires on offence prevented any team getting on the scoreboard and allowed the punters to rack up some serious yardage.

Challenging Traditional thinking: Pulaski Academy

An interesting article by Sports Illustrated looking at the Pulaski Academy and their philosophy:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/scorecasting/09/15/kelley.pulaski/index.html

They never punt on 4th down, don't return punts and have a myriad of onside kick options to get the ball back after they score (or they just kick it out of bounds).

Far from being a mad cap approach to the game, Head Coach Kevin Keely's thinking is grounded on statistical facts factoring in the probablility of an opponent scoring from certain areas of the field and the average net return.

Why are coaches rooted to the tradition of punting the ball away, even if it goes against all statistical sense? Could an approach like this be viable in British American Football?